Russell immediately throws his arms around Charlie, hugging his youngest child to him tightly, before pulling her away as he gets shocked, but he can't help the distraught smile that spreads across his face. "Thank god," he mutters to himself, as his knees tremble under his weight. He was still processing the news, and there was a large part of him that didn't want to believe Frannie, Judy couldn't be dead. The news was soul-crushing, but he had needed to gather his children around him and make sure that they were okay, the fact that no one had been able to reach his youngest—he couldn't lose his wife and one of his children in one day. It would have destroyed the part of his soul that he was sure was already broken. But before he lets his thoughts overwhelm him, he shoves them aside; he needed to be strong for his girls right now. He needed to keep them safe and when the danger passed he could break down and grieve.

Charlie blinks once, and then twice as her anger dissipates and her eyes return to their normal color, as her mind shifts gears and she processes that her father was in front of her, that it was him that was in front of her and not her aunt. She immediately takes in her surroundings and sees Frannie and Brittany, with Brittany holding Mikey in her arms bouncing him as he sleeps soundly. "Quinn—"

"She's alive, she's with Rachel right now, she is not taking the news well," Russell explains quickly. "She's alive Charlie."

Charlie lets out a breath and staggers back, as she begins to process the last few minutes. A whirlwind of emotions crashes over her like a wave, "You're alive, I thought—she said—it doesn't matter you're alive. Grandma, grandad, mom—I couldn't feel them anymore, I couldn't feel grandma anymore, and I saw mom—why did she kill mom, why did she kill pop-pop?"

"Because she's a psychotic bitch that's why," Frannie grimaced as she pushed her father aside and glared at her sister, despite the fact that she was in a tremendous amount of pain. She couldn't allow Charlie to break down now, "Why the fuck didn't you pick up your phone? Do you know how fucking headache inducing it is when you light yourself up like a fucking beacon, every level 5 in the country is aware that something is going on now."

Charlie scowled at Frannie, an immediate reaction to her older sister's tone. "Cass destroyed it," Charlie responds, pushing her sister out of her face. It's only when she sees a look of relief cross Frannie's face does she realize what Frannie was trying to keep her from breaking down now. She pulls her sister into a tight hug squeezing her tightly. "I'm sorry."

Frannie visibly recoils at the touch for a brief moment and attempts to make an escape, before giving in and resting a hand on her sister's head, patting it gently. Her sister had seen what she had seen, she simply hadn't experienced it in real time. "I'm glad you're safe, that she didn't manage to kill you. We need you to call in a favor with the 4 Horsewomen. They owe you after all, and they'll be more amenable to keeping this quiet before the sharks start circling. Charlotte should be able to kick Cassandra's ass."

Charlie immediately pulls away from her sister and looks at her, "Charlotte?" Her brow furrowed in confusion at the suggestion. "It's long past noon in Lima, and Charlotte's physical strength decreases considerably as it gets closer to sundown. In Lima she'd be a mid-level 3 at this time, Cass would murder her. The four of them together might be able to put up a decent fight, but even a broken down Aunt Cass is far stronger than the 4 of them put together on a good day Frannie."

"If more heroes get involved, if the loss of life continues to grow this is going to be a problem that we won't be able to fix. They were sufficiently afraid of your grandmother. Now that—" Russell swallows and looks away for a moment before exhaling, "They will come for you, and I don't think that I have enough capital to make this go away."

"They'll be coming for us anyway, the restrictions and monitoring will come quickly," Frannie said, throwing her hands up. They would need to cover up Cassandra's involvement in New York or the entire family would be in chains. "We should have put that rabid dog down ages ago. This is why you don't piss off the entire hero community with your juvenile stunts you fucking dumbass. God why do you have to be such a pretentious—"

"Frannie," Britt sighed and looked at her sister. "Was there any electrical activity at all? Did you feel even a spark of life—" Her voice breaks and she looks away, as she tries to blink back her tears. The tears spill over, and she bites back a sob.

"Britt," Russell said, moving to comfort her.

"Can you do what needs to be done?"

Charlie turns to look at Quinn, flinching at the coldness in her eyes, "If you're asking me if I can beat her, the answer is yes. If you're asking if I'm going to murder Aunt Cass, you know my stance on that."

Quinn pushes herself towards her twin, "Grandma is gone. Now is not the time for idiotic bullshit idealism. You need to start making difficult choices Charlie, you need to start doing the hard part of the job."

Charlie studies her twin for a moment, "Killing her won't bring them back. And more importantly, killing her won't make me feel whole. If it will make you feel better then be my guest, but I can't do what you're asking Quinn. I just can't."

Quinn scowls at Charlie's reluctance. "Cassandra murdered our grandparents. She murdered our mother, and you can't do what it takes, what message do you think that sends to our enemies? And we have enemies."

"Quinn, take a breath," Frannie barks out, pinching the bridge of her nose. They needed to move fast to contain this and arguing and bickering wasn't going to solve this. "Charlie, Quinn's not wrong, there are going to be difficult if not impossible decisions that you're going to need to make and we can help and make them as a family. Quinn, Charlie—I can't believe I'm saying this—is right, killing that psychopath will not bring them back. Killing a Level 5 even if we're justified, will bring the federal government down on our heads. I know you're upset, I'm fucking pissed too, but for fuck's sake, you're smarter than that. You're certainly smarter than Charlie, think of something that is impossible, and we'll get it done."

"I have an idea," Brittany says, wiping her tears from her face. "I just need you to get me close to her."

Frannie narrowed her eyes, Brittany could do a lot of things, but they required her to be rather close to the individual. "Absolutely not."

Charlie turns as Frannie and Brittany break out into bickering to see Quinn pulling away. "Quinn."

Quinn glances back at her sister and shakes her head, "A hero that can save everyone? What a fucking joke."

~ O ~

"Please pick up," Rachel whispers as she looks at her phone, feeling the frustration and fear growing in the pit of her stomach. All attempts to reach her mother hadn't been successful, email, texting, calling, reaching out on various social media accounts. But for the past half hour she hadn't heard anything or gotten a call back from her mom. At least she'd been able to reach her fathers and she knew that they were safe. Her eyes glance up as Quinn re-enters the room, a dark stormy look on her face as she flops on the oversized couch beside her. "Anything?"

"They don't want to do what needs to be done. Charlie and Brittany I get, they're both soft when it matters, but Frannie? Frannie should be on my side. Cassandra is a problem that we need to eliminate. She's not going to stop until we're all dead."

"I don't know what happened Quinn, I stayed with her and my mother over the summer and things were good. She was doing really well and I could see why my mom loved her—are you sure—is Frannie sure that it was Cass? I mean your family has enemies, are you sure it isn't some shape-shifter?"

"It's Cass. Charlie would have been able to tell immediately if it wasn't," Quinn replied as she motioned for Rachel's phone. When she has it in her hand she leans back and begins to do a search for Rachel's mom. She couldn't let the grief that was beginning to well up overtake her, mourning was something that they could only do when the dust settled. "That's the number for NYU's hero department, they might be able to put you through to your mother."

"It's Thanksgiving Quinn—"

"If NYU is anything like USC, then there will be someone working to act as a dispatch for any heroes on staff, and given what's happening in New York right now it's likely that Shelby has been deputized and is helping out as best as she can."

Quinn's words fill her with hope she didn't have a few minutes ago and she takes a deep breath, "Cassandra and Charlie interacted?"

Quinn shot Rachel a look, "Charlie's fine, doesn't even look like they fought," When Rachel shoots her a patient look, Quinn immediately replays what she had just said. "Charlie is by far the most dangerous member of the family, if Cassandra was looking to kill her—I mean it's nearly impossible to launch a sneak attack on Charlie as it is—" Quinn hopped off the seat. "I need more information."

Rachel watches as Quinn simply leaves the room and takes a breath and looks at her phone, and dials the number for NYU's special dispatch, she could only pray it wasn't a dead end. The moment that she hears the click, she can't help the immediate rush of words that was on the tip of her tongue. "I'm looking for my mother. She works at NYU in the hero department, her name is Shelby Cocoran and I know that this might be an awful time but I need to at least know if she's okay."

There's a momentary pause on the line, as if the dispatcher was waiting for her to finish speaking. 'Shelby Cocoran is out in the field, I can take a message.'

It's a mixture of both relief and deep guilt when she gets the news and she closes her eyes, she knew it made no sense to feel guilty, "Can you tell her to give her daughter a call, she hasn't been picking up her phone and I admit to fearing the worst." Rachel immediately gives her phone number, she wanted to say more but with all this talk of invisible enemies and government overreach, she wasn't sure if mentioning that the situation had to do with Cassandra was the best move forward. Quinn was already spiraling and she shuddered to think where the other Fabray's were at mentally. At least they had pushed back against Quinn's more murderous feelings, not that she could truly blame Quinn. If she hadn't gotten news about Shelby she would have demanded justice and if that justice took the form of capital punishment then she would be okay with that.

~ O ~

"Just send me back Frannie, the longer I sit here the greater the chance that Aunt Cass gets bored and attempts to smoke me out," Charlie states as she begins to undo the buttons on her sleeves and rolls them up, as she kicks off her dress shoes. She immediately pulls her hair back tying it up into a tight ponytail.

"We don't have a plan."

"Yes we do Frannie, you send me back, I confront Cass, we fight, I win, and while I'm doing that you guys figure out what to do about the government," Charlie replies, turning to look at her sister. "I'm pretty sure I can open up a portal back home if needed but I'd rather not get attacked the moment I step out of the portal."

Quinn appeared from the top of the stairs, "Why didn't she kill you? Frannie escaped, but out of all the people in the family that you'd want to get the drop on. You top the list, and everyone in the family knows how difficult it is to get the drop on you. So why didn't she kill you? What did she say to you?"

Charlie shrugged her shoulders, she hadn't given it much thought as to why Cassandra didn't try and eliminate her on sight. Quinn had a point, "She talked about finding her peace, she talked about how this was my fault, how I took her hope away from her. She said that she killed you, and when I got upset she goaded me into using lethal force, Frannie intervened before anything could happen though."

At this new information, Frannie, Russell and Quinn exchange looks, with Russell speaking up first. "Suicide by hero?" Russell suggests.

"No, if Cassandra wanted it to be a hero, then she could have stayed in New York or picked a fight with any of the sociopath's in the Union of Justice. Hell even a run in with a member of the Seven is bound to lead to someone dying, with a shit ton of collateral damage," Frannie muses.

"No, she doesn't get to dictate what our response is," Quinn turns to Charlie who finally seemed to be catching up. "Charlie, she tried to kill Mikey. She tried to kill Frannie. She killed our mother," she sees the pain flash in her sister's eyes as they slowly start to glow. "She killed our grandmother. And she killed gramps. And he loved her the most. There is no forgiveness here, there are no second chances because she's had a million of those. So hurt her, beat her, break her, I don't give a fuck, but you need to make it loud. You can't hide anymore, show the world what you can do and make them terrified of you. Make them so scared of what you would do to them if they did what Cassandra dared to do. But don't kill her. You can't kill her. Do you understand me?"

Charlie licked her lips, and nodded. "It's not like I didn't want to do it, Quinn. I was going to."

"I know, and I know if you had been there you would have saved everyone," Quinn responds letting the grief start to consume her but she clears her throat and blinks back the tears that threatened to fall. "Give us some time to figure out how to deal with the rest of the world."

"Anything longer than 15 minutes and they're going to start sending in the heavy hitters. The Charlotte Flair's the Utopians," Frannie adds. "We can't have that, this family needs to make it clear that we're the only ones that should and can handle our own."

"Right," Charlie agrees, taking a deep breath, her eyes starting to glow as Brittany suddenly touches her face, holding her head in her hands just as she unleashes her power, causing Brittany's blue eyes to glow in response.

"I don't want anyone else that I love to die." Brittany whispers to her sister. So she was going to make sure that her sister came back, "Live." She commands willing all her power into it just as Charlie's power spikes and pulses out hitting her and everyone in the immediate vicinity.

"The fuck was that?" Frannie demands immediately she had felt that it had hit her like a ton of bricks, and the immediate headache that she got whenever Charlie decided to light herself up like a nuclear reactor. But it immediately dissipates.

"Frannie," Charlie interrupts. Whatever Brittany had done had given her a bit of a super charge, she'd probably healed any lingering damage.

Frannie scowled, but glanced at her son for a moment, "Mikey needs a playmate his own age," she muttered under her breath knowing that Charlie could hear her as she opened a portal. "Don't die." Charlie nodded before turning and walking through the portal.

Quinn lets out a breath, it would take a few minutes before things started to roll, "What do you need dad and who do we need to bully to get what we want?"